Jan 13 2004
Fired Up
Back in civilization (for now). No dogs, no Mom. Just cats and the city (new HBO series?). Mom is amusing herself by baffling the doctors with her will to live, so unless you hear otherwise, it is, as Talking Heads put it, same as it ever was.
Pretty much the first thing I did, after going through a week’s worth of mail, doing laundry, and other assorted domestic tasks that had accumulated during my absence, was go to the gym. Of course, it magically banished my stress, and my trainer got a good laugh out of my concussion Christmas.
While I was away, San Francisco got itself the first female fire chief in its history. Though I’m not a fan of the new mayor (and even less of the old one) and voted hopefully for his opponent, the great Matt Gonzalez, I think this is a great choice. Now all we need is a woman President. Hillary, are you listening?
We could use some good news in the fire department, since the Governator’s planning to cut the funding for fire departments all over California. Yes, in the wake of the worst fire in California’s history. Don’t tell me there’s no other way to balance the budget.
Fun fire trivia: my brother, who is a volunteer firefighter, told me that San Francisco is the only city in America to use wooden ladders. Everyone else uses metal ones, so San Francisco’s have to be specially made. Couture ladders! He says it’s because of all the overhead tram and streetcar wires. Not a good combo with metal. Oh, his town voted to tax themselves on a per house, per year basis to help fund their fire department.
7 Responses to “Fired Up”
I never thought about the wooden ladder concept at all, which makes sense. Can’t have toasted firefighters in SF. Glad to hear that you and your mom are doing fine. =)
What a cool little SF factoid. I will share that one at work tomorrow. Maybe I will make it a coffee bet 😉
I’m glad you are back to the guy. It is nice to know I have someone in it with me.
Let’s here it for tight little butts 😉 WOO hOO 😉
Heh, how very SF. Geesh, I kill me.
The guy? I mean the gym. But I am sure John is glad you are back too!
Kudos to your brother’s town. It’s nice to know that there are still parts of this country that aren’t selfish and vote for the greater good. I still get supremely annoyed by people who vote against education!
Hillary would kick ass!
Welcome back 🙂
The more I know about her, the more I think Hillary would be scary, but still the lesser of countless evils.
Kathleen, speaking of education (I just corrected a typo in that word, sheesh) you might find this article interesting. Bush’s fantastic ed record in Texas was one of the things that made people vote for him. No big surprise to find out it was all bullshit.
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0338/schanberg.php
Thanks, John, depressing article since I know people who think Bush is fabulous won’t read it, or if they do will just pass it off as lies by the “liberal media.” Damn, the world is just depressing these days.